Background: Rheological disorders of red blood cells (RBC) and decreased RBC deformability have been involved in the development of diabetic microangiopathy. However, few studies have evaluated the association of RBC count with microvascular complications in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of RBC count with microvascular complications in patients with T2DM.Methods: This study involved 369 patients with T2DM: 243 with one or more microvascular complications and 126 without microvascular complications. Anticoagulated blood was collected and analyzed in an automated blood cell counter. The presence of risk factors for microvascular complications was determined.Results: The proportion of patients with microvascular complications increased as the RBC count decreased (P < 0.001). After adjustment for known risk factors for microvascular complications by logistic regression analysis, lower quartiles of RBC count were associated with a higher risk of microvascular complications compared with the reference group composed of the highest quartile (first quartile, odds ratio 4.98, 95% confidence interval 1.54–6.19, P = 0.008; second quartile, odds ratio 3.21, 95% confidence interval 1.17–5.28, P = 0.024).Conclusion: A decreased RBC count is associated with microvascular complications in Chinese patients with T2DM. The RBC count is a potential marker to improve further the ability to identify diabetic patients at high risk of microvascular complications.

In order to provide our website visitors and registered users with a service tailored to their individual preferences we use cookies to analyse visitor traffic and personalise content. You can learn about our use of cookies by reading our Privacy Policy. We also retain data in relation to our visitors and registered users for internal purposes and for sharing information with our business partners. You can learn about what data of yours we retain, how it is processed, who it is shared with and your right to have your data deleted by reading our Privacy Policy.

If you agree to our use of cookies and the contents of our Privacy Policy please click 'accept'.